LogFAQs > #977021359

For me, I've been a Dallas area resident all of my life, so I just naturally picked up all four of those teams to be a fan of. But, unlike Leon, I'm not old enough to remember any Cowboys Super Bowls (My oldest sports watching memory is watching the Cowboys lose a wild card game to Arizona).

On top of that, I've always been much, much more of a Baseball/Football guy than Hockey/Basketball, so even though I have vague memories of the excitement of the Modano/Hull/Belfour Stars in 1999 and trying to watch the games a bit because of that, it never fully registered with me. Especially with the clincher being in 3OT and me being a 6 year old kid who couldn't stay awake for it even if he wanted to.

I definitely, clearly remember the Mavs in both 2006 and 2011, but more than strongly caring about the Mavs beyond being a general fan of Dirk (Dude's awesome), I enjoyed it more as a revenge story + beating Lebron's superteam after having to hear about "The Decision" constantly leading up to that season.

For me as a sports fan, the thing that actually comes closest to what I've been feeling for the last couple days (And am still feeling now, really) is Andy Murray finally breaking through and winning the US Open (And just as much so, Wimbledon the next year). That one's special to me because I picked up Tennis as a teenager and really enjoyed his style more than Federer, Nadal and the other top players of the mid-late 00s, so I tried to fashion my own game after him. The satisfaction of seeing the guy you've been rooting for and trying to imitate on some level for several years was wonderful.

But the Rangers finally coming through and winning it all still brings me more joy than even that. I've been emotionally invested in and rooting for the Rangers and their players for basically as long as I have been the Cowboys. Similar to Murray as a tennis player later, Rusty Greer was my childhood hero. I was super excited when A-Rod came even though I didn't understand the details. I watched the team suck for years, but still loved rooting for guys like Young, Blalock, Teixeria, Kinsler, etc. Getting crushed so badly in 2010 that I couldn't help but laugh about it. The sheer pain of 2011, and then again in 2015. The frustration that they could never really string anything together with Yu Darvish around (Darvish is still my favorite baseball player of all time). The injury-derailed years of suck. The prospects that didn't pan out (I was a Delino DeShields truther for way too long, and was super happy to see Jurickson Profar find playing time, if not real success, elsewhere).

Even if pretty much everybody from the older teams is gone now, seeing this team break through and finally do it is just fucking bliss. And there are a ton of guys on the team that I really love specifically rooting for too. Semien/Seager, of course. DeGrom when he's healthy, too. But I also really enjoy Carter, Adolis, Garver, Heim, all those guys. I fucking love this team. And I'm so far beyond happy that I got to see them reach the top, especially a year ahead of when they were "supposed" to be serious contenders, meaning that it's an extra year of getting to see the core stick around and work together.

I did skip the parade without a second thought though, because it happened basically a day and a half after the title was clinched, in the hellscape of Arlington's entertainment district that's a total fucking pain in the ass to get to. I probably could've gotten the time off work for it if I had asked, but for the whole traffic and effort to get there/back, I expect the experience would've been super soured for me. Do I regret it? Maybe, just a bit. But only a bit. Especially since my understanding is that the parade wasn't even that good anyways =(

Anyways, I kinda rambled here, but some extra insight into how I'm feeling. And how it may compare to Football, or how people like Neon/Stan were when their teams did it in the past.